The present disclosure relates to a system for optimizing toner usage on a printer device capable of rendering output using a fifth colorant housing. The disclosure is also capable of determining a colorant combination considering five colorants and can be adapted to generate modified colorant separation information.
Conventional printer devices support four colorant housings: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (“CMYK”). Conventional devices utilize these four particular colorants because, traditionally, different CMYK combinations can produce the greatest number of colors using the least amount of toner. This benefit caused the CMYK printing process, using subtractive color mixing, to become the standard in the printing industry.
Recent printer devices are configured to support a fifth colorant housing. The extra housing (cartridge) can contain a toner for a fifth color different from CMYK, such as, for example, ‘red’, or a magnetic ink used in Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (“MICR”) printing. Certain ones of these printer devices can support any made-to-order colorant.
Page Description Language (“PDL”) files can provide the printer devices with color separation information. Color separation is the act of decomposing a digital image into single color layers (s.a., in four basic CMYK toner colors) for rendering the image in an offset printing process. Each single color layer is printed separately, one on top of the other, to collectively give the impression of a desired color.
For the recently developed printer devices capable of utilizing five colorant housings (herein referred to as “CMYKX”), a desired color previously rendered using a select combination of CMYK colorants may also be achieved using different combinations of two, three, or four CMYKX colorants, each including the fifth colorant X. The ideal combination of the five colorants CMYKX, however, is not known. The ideal combination, in one embodiment, can be the combination of colorants that consumes the least amount of toner. In another embodiment, the ideal combination can be the one that renders the closest matching color in appearance. In yet another embodiment, the ideal combination can be the one that is associated with the least expensive toner costs. The color separation included in the PDL file does not consider the toner usage, toner cost or accuracy (hereinafter referred to as “factors”). Nor does the color separation information define a separation for a fifth colorant housing.
A method and a system is desired for reducing toner usage by rendering a print job using a colorant combination that requires the least amount of toner. A desired method and system determines a combination of CMYKX colorants that consumes the least toner. Furthermore, the desired method and system can determine the best combination for rendering each object within the file by considering combinations including at least the fifth colorant X. In this manner, certain objects can be rendered with less toner or less expensive toner than using standard CMYK colorant combinations. By lowering the toner usage or the combination of colorants, the selected colorant combination can also translate to lower costs, absorbed by the user (printer and/or the customer), for rendering the document.